Adelaide Zoo Giant Pandas for Adelaide

the exhibit?

i hope adelaide do something interesting, not just with their panda enclosure, but with their panda exhibit as well.

pandas are such big attractions in zoos yet they are usually housed in pretty boring, hagenbeck style habitats with grass and climbing frames. i can only imagine this is intentional - to keep the areas open and thus the animals on display or that zoos get so exited by the prosect of pandas, they figure the exhibit doesn't need to break any new ground to get attention. the national zoos exhibit would be one that seems to be an exception.

id'e like to see something a little more along the lines of a forest, a real attempt at recreating the temperate mountain woodlands of china. hopefully the zoo decides to attempt something a little more innovative and creative when it comes to habitat immersion.....

likewise, here is an opportunity for the zoo to create an entire precinct. i would have a pretty safe guess that red pandas will be benifiting from a new exhibit as well, but what about other temperate chinese species in australia?

snow leopards, sika deer, golden cats, golden pheasants, pekin robins, mandarin ducks, short-clawed otters. all these spacies live in cool temperate regions of china...

anyhow, here's an opportunity to do something truly a little exciting. i just hope its more national zoo naturalistic than memphis zoo cultural overkill.
 
Patrick
Do you ever pass your thoughts on to the zoos themselves, let them know what you would like to see. I don't know if it would make any difference but at least it would give them an idea of what might be wanted.
 
Patrick, the whole idea of the enw entrance precint is so zoo guests dont have to line up around the street to view the pandas, rather in zoo grounds. The panda exhibit probably is going to be quite basic and open fronted due to the hordes of people comming to see them, some figures are as high as 1.2 or so million people within the first years.

though to i would love adelaide to create something like what you suggest, a nice, new idea of a temerate forest, it will simply not withstand millions of visitors in a short amount of time walking through winding trails.

if you have seen exhibits in the states, people line up and file past exhibits, and you often dont get to stand and just observe.

it is quite sad, and i totally agree with all your ideas, and think they would be great, but the likely hood of that actually happening is minimal.
 
thanks for the compliment jay, i have in the past but it doesn't go far.

since zoos are relying more and more on thematics, i think they need as least one chief creative, and art director essentially.

afterall, thats why disney's wild animal kingdom looks the way it does.

for example the melbourne zoo gardeners do a great job of maintaining the gardens, and they have, to a certain extent done a great job of creating a "rainforest". but just because they know about plants does that make them good at knowing how to simulate a foreign landscape with them?

they have for example, planted a stand of banaglow palms (a australian/asian genus) in the african rainforest and recently senegal palms in the asian rainforest.

now you can call me picky, but all these little nuances add up. i often get told "oh but does the average zoo visitor really..."

(by the way if this was not an internet forum i would throttle the next person who says that! ;))

... and the answer is yes - if the average zoo visitor appreciates the higher standard of landscaping at disney's animal kingdom, then yes, they do appreciate the attention to detail. they may not recognise the difference between a senegal and bangalow palm, but they do subconsciously know the "look" of africa. and the little details such as the look of the palms contributes to this.
 
I will call you picky again! I Carnt wait to see you run the most zoograhical, biological, botanically correct, immersive, artistic zoo in the world- it will be most politically correct zoo in the world.

There will be crazy old botanist running around saying jeez thats a banaglow palm you twit. Hence why it's in the asian precint- gosh!
 
it'll be better than your dumbarse zoo... and mixed species pair of elephants and a bronze statue of steve irwin :D
 
yes patrick i will breed hybrid elephants, and white lions- and totally ensure the phase out of jaguars just to peve u off!
 
While your at it Zoo Boy make sure that those hybrid elephants are kept in a nice looking but tiny cage e.g. tarongas.
 
When I saw the giant pandas at the San Diego Zoo in 2006 it was an amazing experience, but the exhibit was underwhelming and lacked the look and feel of a temperate Chinese location. There were hordes of visitors lined up shoulder to shoulder along the lengthy, narrow enclosure. Adelaide won't be half as busy as San Diego, but they should still double their current attendance figures and so will also need a wide-angled enclosure that allows for maximum visitor space. The idea to create an Asian-themed precinct is terrific, and maybe once the funding rolls in from the increased attendance then Adelaide can incorporate more species from the same geographic region as the giant pandas.

This summer I should be visiting the National Zoo in Washington D.C. and the brand new giant panda exhibit (found on zoolex) appears to be an improvement on the old enclosure. Perhaps that could be used as a model for Adelaide?

Exhibit
 
almost anything could be an improvement to the panda exhibit at the " National " Zoo in Washington DC ! . The building is so ordinary a 10 year old wannabe architect could have designed it !
The zoo is better than San Francisco Zoo , but for a "National " Zoo label , it didnt really live up to its name .

And I have to agree with Patrick , the gardening team can certainly make a difference for a zoo to excellent , as opposed to good . The difference is the gardening quality between Wellington and Auckland Zoos is very noticable .
Admittedly , Wellingtons zoo has become more pleasant and enjoyable , now that they have a dedicated gardener . But Aucklands botanists create a magic atmosphere within the zoo , trying to plant as close as possible the species that would be found in the animals natural habitat
 
actually nigel i wasn't so much praising what gardening teams could do, as i was sayingwhat they couldn't do.

(without meaning to insult melbournes team)

my point was that gardeners might be great at caring for plants and creating attractive gardens, but that does not necessarily make them good at understanding what it is that makes an exotic landscape so visually distinct.

disney's animal kingdom, like all the disney parks, has a team of artists at the helm. called "disney imagineers" they essentially design the landscapes like an art director would a film set. and it is because of this, that their landscapes look so good.

it just interesting that zoos are obviously striving to compete with the likes of disney, yet don't get what it is that makes them so good at it... i was looking at the pics of tarongas new GSO precinct. the style of the rockwork is the same generic style and colour that is used for melbourne's bear pit built in the 80's. you can also see it in trail of the elephants, the gorilla and mandrill exhibits, the old melbourne seal pool and no doubt every other second exhibit in the country...
 
point taken .

But a smart zoo would have at least a gardiner that knew some basic geography and world botany , and would try to create the theme properly
like Disney does very well .......
...... even if it is leafy plants in/around enclosures whos animals come from a leafy (jungle ? ) environment , and small shrubby stuff for grassland enclosures

I feel that a gardener in the zoo should be responsible for creating the appropriate background , as well as caring to lawns and flowerbeds .
If the gardener just wants to do gardening , they should work at a botanical garden rather than a zoological one ?
 
Rudd gives panda pledge - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has dismissed doubt raised over whether two pandas from China will travel to Australia.

Opposition backbencher Alexander Downer called on Mr Rudd to guarantee that Budget cuts would not slash the funding program to transfer and house the two pandas at Adelaide Zoo.
Click to expand...

[ame]http://mpegmedia.abc.net.au/news/audio/audio/200804/20080411-sa-pandas.mp3[/ame]
 
As long as there are no major problems then the giant pandas are going to be a gold mine. If by some miracle the female conceives a baby then the Adelaide Zoo will have the cash to renovate half of its exhibits, and the attendance will be past the million mark.

@Nigel: you are correct in regards to the National Zoo in Washington D.C., as for many years it has been notorious for poor exhibits and numerous animal deaths. However, with a nonstop campaign of upgrades, practically unlimited amounts of cash from the U.S. government, the massive Asian set of exhibits that opened last year (all on zoolex) and the upcoming $45 million worth of elephant yards the zoo has bounced back from the doldrums. I think that you visited a decade (or even longer) ago and thus when I go there for the first time this summer I'll post an update on how the zoo appears in the modern era.
 
Check with Snowleopard for an update on National Zoo before you go .....

It might be different now , but it was quite pathetic for a "National " Zoo title .

Even Houston Zoo was heaps better
 
AdelaideNow... $8m zoo funding shortfall

So the dates are now official: September 2009 for completion of the zoo entrance, perimeter fence, plaza, penguin and giant panda exhibits. October 2009 the pair of pandas arrive. Then the zoo will be ready for the enormously busy summer season!
 
are there any links to the masterplan for the panda exhibit? Or the penguins? I have seen the virtual tour of the new entrance and i have seen the web page for the new chimp exhibit for monarto, but haven't seen the panda plans.
 
the recent earth quakes in china, as massive a humanitarian disaster as they are also underscore the importance of ex-situ breeding programs for panda and other critically endangered taxa.
had the earthquake been any worse the bulk of the main captive breeding population could have been wiped out.
happily this isnt the case but it does strengthen the case for ex-situ programs
 
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